ABSTRACT
Sex-related deaths due to solo sex-related activities involving asphyxia are generally known as
autoerotic fatalities
. These manners of death are not prevalent. Nonetheless, police and medical examiners as well as coroners in various jurisdictions have recorded a sufficient number of cases to make this phenomenon a concern in the accurate determination of manner of death. Therefore, the homicide investigator should be aware of them. The mechanism of death may be asphyxia or some other physiological derangement caused by strangulation or suffocation. The manner of death, based on first observation, may be classified as suicide or homicide, when in fact, it is actually an accident that occurred during a dangerous autoerotic act.
